Is anyone else upset that the vertical shooter is disappearing? (A vertical shooter is a game like Galaga or 1942.) They're still being produced, just not in the amount they once were. The vertical shooter is classic, and always fun, in my opinion. Just because it's a simple concept doesn't mean it's not fun. Actually, the Wii and DS are making a business out of simple yet fun, innovative concepts.
I just started playing Ikaruga again. It's a vertical shooter for the Gamecube, and it is one of the greatest games I have ever seen. Think it's just the same old stuff the rest are? Not at all. In Ikaruga, there are two types of shots fired: black and white. You can change your ship's aura between black and white. When black, you absorb black shots and take damage from white shots, but your black attacks deal double damage to white enemies. It's vice versa for the white aura. There is constantly an unbelievable amount of enemy shots on screen, and you must switch and fire in frequencies seeming impossible. It's a brilliant game.
Another is Chaos Field. It's nothing like Ikaruga, yet still ridiculously fun. Your ship has no way to absorb shots, but there's about the same insane amount of fire coming at you. In this game, you have special attacks and a sword on the front of your ship that can intercept most types of attacks. But these can only be used sparingly, so timing and maneuvering are key. It's probably the most difficult game I've ever come across (other than Super Ghouls n' Ghosts, but that's another story).
Vertical shooters also have a great replay value. You can beat them, and still play over and over, only getting better. Vertical shooters are really the only games with scoreboards anymore, so you can easily see who out of your friends is the best. Some would say that these games have no multiplayer value for parties and such. I disagree entirely. Not only do some vertical shooters have co-op, but what's the trouble with the good old "Pass the sticks, man."? Can you only have fun shooting each other in FPS multiplayer?
Sadly, the vertical shooter is a dying breed. Everyone just wants the Halo-style action FPS anymore, if they aren't busy playing some garbage Madden that IS THE SAME THING AS LAST YEAR'S. I think the vertical shooter can still be a great genre, if only more people were aware that they're still being made.
there's a reason why they released galaga on the wii virtual console. I happen to be a proud owner of such game. even my parents like playing the game while i'm not in the living room, and if So You Think You Can Dance? is not on that night.
my fav game of the genre though has to be super spy hunter for NES. such a great game for a very primitive system.
Ever played Geometry Wars on XBox Live Arcade? Trippily addictive.
Granted, this is not strictly a vertical shooter, but it's a stationary play area and you shoot for big explosions. Close enough?
Ooh, searching for images, I learn that Geometry Wars: Galaxies is being/was released for the Wii and DS. I'm seriously considering buying the Wii version.
Ever played Geometry Wars on XBox Live Arcade? Trippily addictive.
Ooh, searching for images, I learn that Geometry Wars: Galaxies is being/was released for the Wii and DS. I'm seriously considering buying the Wii version.
I haven't played it, but what I've seen did really impress me. That's a good one.
I have always been a huge fan of the Galaga/Galaxian series.
When I was 12 I actually finally wrapped the game in the arcade. reset the score to 0 and the speed went back to normal. It is one of my proudest and most iconic moments as a gamer. Best quarter I ever spent.
i certainly miss my fav vertical shooter game which is 1942. me and my brother always compete of who can get the top score. sadly, the best 1942 out there is from NES and arcades.
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Scrolling Shooters/Shmups don't really show off the hardware of newer systems, which is a major selling point for developers. The other side of that coin is that they don't require a lot of money or a team of developers to produce. There are lots of great indy shmups on the Web, either in Flash or free for download.
Warning Forever comes to mind...it's like the Shadow of the Colossus of the Shmup genere.
They're dying off in the mainstream, but there are so many bloody indie shmups being released. Like the ones mentioned here. And I can't believe no one's mentioned Touhou yet Maybe that's too much of an otaku-loser thing? Too be honest, Touhou is much more popular for it's setting, characters, and over a thousand fan-made comics and music cd's and stuff, but the games are still pretty damn awesome. Touhou even has it's own yearly convention, and a wiki (the link up there)
Another indie shmup I like is Endless Fire. It's best feature is that every stage is randomly, algorithmicly generated, so it never gets boring, and you can't just succeed by memorizing rote patterns. To me, it's like "the simplest parts of shmups, but done right." It doesn't have fancy pretentious gaming mechanics, just smooth and intense gameplay that feels just as it should. The graphics are sound are lo-fi, but they have a good, technological feel to them. It's also free to download. The guy who made it gets federal art grants.
IMHO, the best shooters are being released for the PC. The consoles are the domain of huge corporations that put out repetetive crap for 12-year olds and drunken frat boys. The home computer is the domain of small independent designers and coding artists who make unique and innovative works of gaming art. Well, at least that's one very black and white way of looking at it.
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I certainly miss this genre myself. I used to love playing shmups on arcades and occasionally on the console. Unfortunately the last time I had a chance to play one was on the DS (Nanostray) and before that way back on the Genesis...
On the plus it does seem more shmups are being released (Three on the DS at the very least (Nanostray 2, Geometry Wars, CosmosX2) and who knows how many may hit the downloadable sections on consoles). I sincerely hope there's many more to come too.
I should get Galaga on the Wii.. vertical shooters have always been a classic arcade game, but they don't translate so well to consoles because of their 'arcade' nature. The game's gotta be replayable for it to survive.
Yup replay value is high for games. Though with our generation replay value was ment with Tetris, now it's multiable endngs or WoW like games that have no "real" ending. :/
I downloaded Gradius III on Wii and have been very happy with it. I think it is currently the highest rated Virtual Console shooter on IGN, and for good reason. The power-up system is fun and unique, the music is great, and the enemies are pretty cool. The difficulty can get quite high, even with the cheat codes. But the nice thing is that there are four difficulty levels to choose from so you don't get frustrated with a game that's too easy or too hard. (Easy mode is nice for beginners and Arcade mode is just insane.) Additionally, I want to mention that I did not play this game back in the day, so there is no nostalgia factor for me. The game is just plain fun, even today.
For one thing, vertical shooters are best made with the screen aligned vertically. Being most home consoles are aligned horizontally (unlike arcade machines, which has mounts for both), a vertical shooter that has little vertical movement and tons of empty space at the sides looks and plays, well, bad.
Let's take the Raiden. Try playing it on a standard TV (Raiden 3 was released for the PS2 a while back). it looks horrible, because you either had a tiny screen to work with with lots of empty space in the sides, or a full screen that scrolls up and down -- meaning you can't see the entire screen at any given time. It wasn't really a fun playing experience. Either I was squinting or not seeing that enemy that was flying straight at me from behind.
Another problem with shooters is that while it may have co-op, it doesn't have head-to-head. The ability to pit yourself directly against another person (as opposed to beating each other's high scores, or hogging powerups during a two-player game) is something vertical shooters will always lack.
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"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
I agree. My Capcom Collection 2 has an old classic Vertical Shooter (cannot remember the name) where the original arcade machine had a large screen, and on my TV I cannot see anything when playing. I almost wish there was a "Zoom" button you could toggle on and off. Too bad, it was an awesome game with alot of unique features (the levels alternated between flying and driving. The driving stages had weaving and narrowing roads with obstacles and holes and such. You could drive off the edge and had to jump gaps. The flying stages we spectacular and full of all sorts of fun things, and had likewise narrowing areas at times. Some stages were nuts with the amount of enemies on the screen, and I couldn't see alot of important details i needed to dodge and such. Wish I could have played it in the Arcade.
They also could have included an option to turn your TV sideways, that would be an awesome feature.
Gradius is a Horizontal shooter sweety, not a Vertical.
My bad! I guess I wasn't paying enough attention. But that leads me to the question are vertical shooters better than horizontal ones for some reason? They seem pretty similar to me at a glance.
The difference is subtle. Many Vertical shooters are static (Galaga, Space Invaders) Gun at bottom, enemies attack you. This is not always true, but you do not really see that in a horizontal game. A side view as opposed to an overhead view also makes certain game features more viable graphically. A game like Side Arms Hyper Dyne would likely look like crap and not work at all in a vertical environment. How do you show two robots forming together as one from overhead effectively? A build like Space Harrier could have done it mind you, with a rear view.
Is anyone else upset that the vertical shooter is disappearing? (A vertical shooter is a game like Galaga or 1942.) They're still being produced, just not in the amount they once were. The vertical shooter is classic, and always fun, in my opinion. Just because it's a simple concept doesn't mean it's not fun. Actually, the Wii and DS are making a business out of simple yet fun, innovative concepts.
I just started playing Ikaruga again. It's a vertical shooter for the Gamecube, and it is one of the greatest games I have ever seen. Think it's just the same old stuff the rest are? Not at all. In Ikaruga, there are two types of shots fired: black and white. You can change your ship's aura between black and white. When black, you absorb black shots and take damage from white shots, but your black attacks deal double damage to white enemies. It's vice versa for the white aura. There is constantly an unbelievable amount of enemy shots on screen, and you must switch and fire in frequencies seeming impossible. It's a brilliant game.
Another is Chaos Field. It's nothing like Ikaruga, yet still ridiculously fun. Your ship has no way to absorb shots, but there's about the same insane amount of fire coming at you. In this game, you have special attacks and a sword on the front of your ship that can intercept most types of attacks. But these can only be used sparingly, so timing and maneuvering are key. It's probably the most difficult game I've ever come across (other than Super Ghouls n' Ghosts, but that's another story).
Vertical shooters also have a great replay value. You can beat them, and still play over and over, only getting better. Vertical shooters are really the only games with scoreboards anymore, so you can easily see who out of your friends is the best. Some would say that these games have no multiplayer value for parties and such. I disagree entirely. Not only do some vertical shooters have co-op, but what's the trouble with the good old "Pass the sticks, man."? Can you only have fun shooting each other in FPS multiplayer?
Sadly, the vertical shooter is a dying breed. Everyone just wants the Halo-style action FPS anymore, if they aren't busy playing some garbage Madden that IS THE SAME THING AS LAST YEAR'S. I think the vertical shooter can still be a great genre, if only more people were aware that they're still being made.
Well, naysayers, it seems everyone loves a good vertical shooter. I rest my case.
IKARUGA IS THE BEST GAME EVER.
My IGN icon has been Ikaruga for the last 2 years or so. And Every Extend is really awesome, too. I'll probably get EE Extra once my PSP arrives here, heh.
As to why the vertical shooter is dying: it's ... overly simple/hard for people, now. But yeah ... Ikaruga is the best game ever made ... that I've played. I really don't see how anything could be better. It's just so rediculously pure ... I don't care if all I beat was Easy mode, it was still a real #$@#. And took 8 hours for what is nominally a 30-minute game ... but I loved every minute of it.
The game market in general is going away from those hard-to-beat games, because [imho]most gamers suck ... just look at the sales of F-Zero GX for another example of this [it's the best racer this gen, but oh noes, it's hard, so I gues it can only sell ~250k copies!].
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my mouth is full of winsome lies -
and eyes are full of death besides
but luckily the soul is wise -
it sees beyond my blindness and
forced failure makes a better guise,
so as i come again alive,
it feels like life's a decent plan
I loved Ikaruga... That game is frustratingly difficult and AWESOME.
For those who had an old DOS computer, there was a great vertical shooter put out by APOGEE software called Rapter: Call of the Shadows. It was a vertical shooter with fighter jets with all kinds of over-the-top weapons and enemies. It, too, was very difficult in the later episodes of the game, but man was that game fun.
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I just started playing Ikaruga again. It's a vertical shooter for the Gamecube, and it is one of the greatest games I have ever seen. Think it's just the same old stuff the rest are? Not at all. In Ikaruga, there are two types of shots fired: black and white. You can change your ship's aura between black and white. When black, you absorb black shots and take damage from white shots, but your black attacks deal double damage to white enemies. It's vice versa for the white aura. There is constantly an unbelievable amount of enemy shots on screen, and you must switch and fire in frequencies seeming impossible. It's a brilliant game.
Another is Chaos Field. It's nothing like Ikaruga, yet still ridiculously fun. Your ship has no way to absorb shots, but there's about the same insane amount of fire coming at you. In this game, you have special attacks and a sword on the front of your ship that can intercept most types of attacks. But these can only be used sparingly, so timing and maneuvering are key. It's probably the most difficult game I've ever come across (other than Super Ghouls n' Ghosts, but that's another story).
Vertical shooters also have a great replay value. You can beat them, and still play over and over, only getting better. Vertical shooters are really the only games with scoreboards anymore, so you can easily see who out of your friends is the best. Some would say that these games have no multiplayer value for parties and such. I disagree entirely. Not only do some vertical shooters have co-op, but what's the trouble with the good old "Pass the sticks, man."? Can you only have fun shooting each other in FPS multiplayer?
Sadly, the vertical shooter is a dying breed. Everyone just wants the Halo-style action FPS anymore, if they aren't busy playing some garbage Madden that IS THE SAME THING AS LAST YEAR'S. I think the vertical shooter can still be a great genre, if only more people were aware that they're still being made.
If you don't want to take my word for it, here are reviews from some gaming communities:
Here are gamefaqs.com's reviews of Ikaruga.
Here is GameInformer's review of Ikaruga.
Here is Maddox's review of Ikaruga.
Here are gamefaqs.com's reviews of Chaos Field.
Here is GameSpot's review of Chaos Field.
Well, naysayers, it seems everyone loves a good vertical shooter. I rest my case.
my fav game of the genre though has to be super spy hunter for NES. such a great game for a very primitive system.
Long live vertical shooters!
Objection!
Granted, this is not strictly a vertical shooter, but it's a stationary play area and you shoot for big explosions. Close enough?
Ooh, searching for images, I learn that Geometry Wars: Galaxies is being/was released for the Wii and DS. I'm seriously considering buying the Wii version.
I haven't played it, but what I've seen did really impress me. That's a good one.
When I was 12 I actually finally wrapped the game in the arcade. reset the score to 0 and the speed went back to normal. It is one of my proudest and most iconic moments as a gamer. Best quarter I ever spent.
Awesome banner by SpiderBoy4 of High~Light Studios. Thanks a lot!
Warning Forever comes to mind...it's like the Shadow of the Colossus of the Shmup genere.
Binary Zoo makes some cool shmups too.
Another indie shmup I like is Endless Fire. It's best feature is that every stage is randomly, algorithmicly generated, so it never gets boring, and you can't just succeed by memorizing rote patterns. To me, it's like "the simplest parts of shmups, but done right." It doesn't have fancy pretentious gaming mechanics, just smooth and intense gameplay that feels just as it should. The graphics are sound are lo-fi, but they have a good, technological feel to them. It's also free to download. The guy who made it gets federal art grants.
IMHO, the best shooters are being released for the PC. The consoles are the domain of huge corporations that put out repetetive crap for 12-year olds and drunken frat boys. The home computer is the domain of small independent designers and coding artists who make unique and innovative works of gaming art. Well, at least that's one very black and white way of looking at it.
On the plus it does seem more shmups are being released (Three on the DS at the very least (Nanostray 2, Geometry Wars, CosmosX2) and who knows how many may hit the downloadable sections on consoles). I sincerely hope there's many more to come too.
Awesome banner by SpiderBoy4 of High~Light Studios. Thanks a lot!
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Ikaruga sounds really good from your description.
Gradius is a really good game though. I like Paradius much better though
Let's take the Raiden. Try playing it on a standard TV (Raiden 3 was released for the PS2 a while back). it looks horrible, because you either had a tiny screen to work with with lots of empty space in the sides, or a full screen that scrolls up and down -- meaning you can't see the entire screen at any given time. It wasn't really a fun playing experience. Either I was squinting or not seeing that enemy that was flying straight at me from behind.
Another problem with shooters is that while it may have co-op, it doesn't have head-to-head. The ability to pit yourself directly against another person (as opposed to beating each other's high scores, or hogging powerups during a two-player game) is something vertical shooters will always lack.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
They also could have included an option to turn your TV sideways, that would be an awesome feature.
My bad! I guess I wasn't paying enough attention. But that leads me to the question are vertical shooters better than horizontal ones for some reason? They seem pretty similar to me at a glance.
IKARUGA IS THE BEST GAME EVER.
My IGN icon has been Ikaruga for the last 2 years or so. And Every Extend is really awesome, too. I'll probably get EE Extra once my PSP arrives here, heh.
As to why the vertical shooter is dying: it's ... overly simple/hard for people, now. But yeah ... Ikaruga is the best game ever made ... that I've played. I really don't see how anything could be better. It's just so rediculously pure ... I don't care if all I beat was Easy mode, it was still a real #$@#. And took 8 hours for what is nominally a 30-minute game ... but I loved every minute of it.
The game market in general is going away from those hard-to-beat games, because [imho]most gamers suck ... just look at the sales of F-Zero GX for another example of this [it's the best racer this gen, but oh noes, it's hard, so I gues it can only sell ~250k copies!].
and eyes are full of death besides
but luckily the soul is wise -
it sees beyond my blindness and
forced failure makes a better guise,
so as i come again alive,
it feels like life's a decent plan
For those who had an old DOS computer, there was a great vertical shooter put out by APOGEE software called Rapter: Call of the Shadows. It was a vertical shooter with fighter jets with all kinds of over-the-top weapons and enemies. It, too, was very difficult in the later episodes of the game, but man was that game fun.
(450 unpowered, MMA-style archetypes in each color pair)
Commander:
Far too many to count...